|
I have a dc500 with no strobe and have taken many shots at night.
It's a pretty tough balancing act to get used to. Camera in one hand,
light in other then getting it to focus and positioning the camera.
Here is main issue. Not sure if its a problem with the dc600 or not.
The DC500 needs quite a bit of light in order to focus. This means
that you have to shine the dive light at the subject to get it to focus,
then move it away to avoid a bright hot spot in the photo.
Now to make it more complicated, the snout of the housing casts
a very large shadow in the bottom half of the frame.
To minimize this I then move the camera down slightly off center
of the subject.
So here is how I take the photo.
Shine the light at the subject. Point the camera at the subject then
push the shutter button half way to focus. Then move the light away.
(subject will be very dark or black now), Then move the camera slightly
down. Then finally push the shutter button down fully to take the shot.
Once you get use to its shadow region created by the snout you can
actually compensate for it by moving the light slightly down and
keeping the camera centered on subject.
I also find that holding the camera with 2 hands vs one greatly steadies
the camera and reduces blur when the exposures get longer.
This also makes things tricky at night when trying to keep both the camera
and light steady.
Closeup Macro doesn't work at all because the snout blocks too much of the light.
12" to about 4 feet in clear water will be ok.
I have done some movies with the dive light.
Its kind of a "scary" looking video but kind of cool.
If you have bright enough lights between you and your buddy you
can get some shots without a flash, if you can keep the camera
fairly steady.
Definitely worth taking and trying.
--- bill
|